Most property stolen from vehicles returned to owners

Published 7:00 pm, Sunday, December 31, 2006

In the last couple of weeks, a multitude of items stolen from vehicles in Larkin Township has been returned.

The items were seized by Midland County Sheriffs deputies when a search warrant was served in December, and Detective Brent Benzing was tasked with finding the rightful owners. The problem was that the owners of the stolen items never reported the thefts.

At that time, the Daily News ran a short story asking anyone who left their vehicles parked along Woodland Estates Drive in Larkin Township and thought their vehicles might have been entered during Thanksgiving weekend to contact Benzing.

And boy, did they ever. A flood of people reported items stolen from parked vehicles. The latest was made to deputies on Dec. 27. In all cases, victims told officials they were making the reports because theyd read or been told of the items that had been recovered.

"The majority of the stuff is identified and has been returned to the owners," Benzing said Friday afternoon. The leftovers are little things like flashlights. The really good stuff  a palm pilot, a GPS and an iPod, compact discs, speakers, walkie talkies, binoculars and even credit cards  is back where it belongs or being held as evidence, Benzing said. There were about 12 victims in all, he said.

"Weve done really well with solving our property crimes this year," Benzing said, adding most of the problems have been caused by several groups of youngsters.